A Sheep in the Deep
A Sheep in the Deep is a 1962 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble. Title The title is a play on the 1897 song, Asleep in the Deep. Plot Sam wakes up at dawn and takes a leisurely stroll to work as Ralph sleeps in and the sun rises. Just as Sam reaches the punch clock and lifts his hair to read the time, Ralph's alarm clock goes off, triggering the conveyor system that he uses to get to work. A claw lifts his blanket, his bed tilts, dropping him into a trap door where he falls into the shower, after a second in the shower a spring below him engages, sending him into a towel and onto a roller skate. As he rides the roller skate down its rail and dries off with the towel, he is fed a slice of toast and coffee. Finally, he grabs his lunch from a hook and rides the roller skate out his front door, down the path, and punches into work before Sam. As always, the two merrily greet each other. 1. Ralph begins with the straightforward approach of sneaking into the field and snatching a sheep. As he walks back, Sam drops a banana peel on which Ralph slips. Instead of falling immediately, Ralph slides around on the banana peel, and on his way back Sam snags the stolen sheep with a lasso. As Ralph continues to slide forward, he begins to say "Ooh, I'd like to..." only to hit a tree face-first. 2. This time Ralph digs a hole under Sam and out the side of the cliff face, and decides to try to snatch a sheep with a lasso in the same way Sam did in Ralph's last attempt. This is successful, but while Ralph is pulling the sheep up Sam leans over the edge and into Ralph's hole, where he glares at Ralph intimidatingly. Ralph innocently lowers the sheep down, but Sam grabs Ralph by the neck and hits him on the head, propelling him into a tree trunk. As Ralph climbs out of the tree trunk, he resembles a stack of pancakes. 3. Ralph's next plan is to tunnel under Sam, cut out a circle of earth around Sam with a saw, and jack that circle high into the air with a jack. Successful, Ralph ties a dinner napkin around his neck and prepares to steal a sheep. However, as he's doing this, Sam pulls out a corkscrew and removes the piece of earth that the jack is supporting, sending the entire chunk of earth crashing onto Ralph. 4. In Ralph's fourth attempt, he ties himself to a bunch of helium balloons and floats over Sam. Sam calmly pours a box of BB pellets into his mouth and shoots at Ralph's balloons with a blow gun. Ralph is left grasping on to a single balloon, but the knot on the balloon slips and Ralph is projected into Sam. Sam grabs Ralph by the neck and prepares to drop him off the cliff. However, before that can happen, the punch clock whistle blows and Sam and Ralph head off for lunch. They enjoy their sandwiches and Sam shares his coffee with Ralph, then they have a smoke break. They both walk back to the cliff, and as soon as the whistle blows to signal the end of lunch, Sam grabs Ralph by the neck and finally drops him. 5. Ralph's next plan is to build a large slide behind Sam and drop a cannonball down the slide. Sam casually points a large spring at the end of the slide, sending the cannonball back up the slide and into Ralph's dropped jaw. Ralph angrily walks away as the cannonball inside his tail weighs him down. 6. Ralph then attempts to use a record titled "Music to put sheep dogs to sleep by" to put Sam to sleep. This appears to be successful, and Ralph tests to make sure that Sam really is asleep. After walking off, stealing a sheep and preparing to eat it, the sheep turns out to be Sam in disguise. However, the two of them continue to remove disguises. * Ralph turns out to be a sheep * Sam turns out to be Ralph * The sheep turns out to be Sam * Ralph turns out to be a sheep * Sam turns out to be Ralph Finally, Ralph grabs the sheep by the neck, and the sheep turns out to be a stick of dynamite. However, Ralph is saved by the bell when the punch clock whistles. Sam walks in off screen and extinguishes the stick of dynamite, saying "It's too close to quittin' time Ralph, let's pick it up there in the morning." The two amicably wish each other good night. Availability * (1993) LaserDisc - Looney Tunes Assorted Nuts * (2017) Streaming - Boomerang Censorship * Two scenes were omitted from this short on ABC. The entirety of Ralph's second plan was omitted, and the entire lunchtime gag, where Sam holds Ralph over the edge of the cliff, the two leave to have lunch, and then return to drop Ralph off the cliff was omitted. * CBS and Cartoon Network/Boomerang left Ralph's second plan intact, but edited the lunch break scene to remove the brief shots of Ralph and Sam smoking. However, the part with Sam cleaning his pipe by tapping it on his foot was left in. Despite CN/Boomerang USA editing out this scene on television, this scene is however left intact on Boomerang Streaming Service. Notes * This is the sixth short featuring Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf, as well as the last cartoon featuring Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf to be directed by Chuck Jones. Their next appearance was in "Woolen Under Where", released in 1963 and directed by Phil Monroe and Richard Thompson of the Chuck Jones unit. That was also the first of the last two cartoons featuring the characters to be written by Chuck Jones (the previous cartoons with these characters were written by Michael Maltese, who had already left for Hanna-Barbera in 1960). * This cartoon was also featured on early TV airings of Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (completed with new animation), due to the several cuts and edits they done to the film. This version of the film with the cartoon was first seen on CBS in the mid-80s, then was aired on Disney Channel and Family Channel in the 90s. The original theatrical version of the film as seen on current TV airings and home video releases however originally did not have this cartoon includedhttps://archive.org/details/bugsbunnys3rdmovie1001rabbittales1983vhs. Gallery Wb-lc-asheepinthedeep-16x20-framed-sm.jpg|Lobby Card Sam and Ralph clock.png|Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf punching the time clock Sam defeating the jack.png|Sam defeating Ralph's jack plan with a corkscrew A Sheep in the Deep Censorship.png|This smoke break scene was censored on CBS, Cartoon Network and Boomerang TV airings. References Category:Shorts Category:Wolf and Sheepdog Shorts Category:1962 Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts Category:Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones Category:Cartoons directed by Maurice Noble Category:Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales Cartoons Category:Cartoons written by Chuck Jones Category:Cartoons animated by Bob Bransford Category:Cartoons animated by Richard Thompson Category:Cartoons animated by Tom Ray Category:Cartoons with layouts by Corny Cole Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by William Butler Category:Cartoons with music by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons produced by David H. DePatie Category:Cartoons that contain excerpts from "Powerhouse"